Antebellum Culture and Reform

The Ferment of Reform Period before the Civil War known as the antebellum period Diverse mix of reformers dedicated themselves to transforming society

Antebellum Culture and Reform Religious Revivalism

Religion: The Second Great Awakening Religious revivals swept through US during early 19th century Reaction against the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution Allowed free will to play a role in salvation

The Second Great Awakening “Spiritual Reform From Within” [Religious Revivalism] Social Reforms & Redefining the Ideal of Equality Temperance Education Abolitionism Asylum & Penal Reform Women’s Rights

Revivalism in New York 1823 -> Presbyterian minister Charles G. Finney started radical form of revivalism in upstate New York Appealed to people’s emotions and fear of damnation -> persuaded thousands to declare their revived faith Western New York became known as the “burned-over district” for its frequent “hell-and-brimstone” revivals

Millennialism Much of widespread religious belief of the time based on the idea that the world was about to end with the second coming of Christ William Miller predicted a specific date -October 21, 1844 When nothing happened, Millerites continued as a new religion known as Seventh-Day Adventists

Mormons Church of the Latter-Day Saints Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 Traced a connection between the Native Americans and the lost tribes of Israel To escape persecution for beliefs, migrated to the far west under the leadership of Brigham Young Practice of polygamy aroused the hostility of the US government

The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) 1823  Golden Tablets 1830  Book of Mormon 1844  Murdered in Carthage, IL Joseph Smith (1805-1844)

The Mormon “Trek”

The Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) Deseret community. Salt Lake City, Utah Brigham Young (1801-1877)

The Mormons

Antebellum Culture and Reform Ideas, Art, and Literature

(European Romanticism) Transcendentalism (European Romanticism) Liberation from understanding and the cultivation of reasoning.” “Transcend” the limits of intellect and allow the emotions, the SOUL, to create an original relationship with the Universe.

The Transcendentalist Agenda Give freedom to the slave. Give well-being to the poor and the miserable. Give learning to the ignorant. Give health to the sick. Give peace and justice to society.

Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) “The American Scholar” (1837) Transcendentalist Intellectuals/Writers Concord, MA Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Nature (1832) Resistance to Civil Disobedience (1849) Self-Reliance (1841) Walden (1854) “The American Scholar” (1837) R3-1/3/4/5

John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886) The Oneida Community New York, 1848 Humans were no longer obliged to follow the moral rules of the past. all residents married to each other. carefully regulated “free love.” John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886)

Demands of Community Life Secular Utopian Communities Individual Freedom Demands of Community Life spontaneity self-fulfillment discipline organizational hierarchy

Brook Farm -> communal experiment West Roxbury, MA George Ripley (1802-1880) Brook Farm -> communal experiment West Roxbury, MA

Original Plans for New Harmony, IN

Shakers 6,000 members in various communities by the 1840’s Held property in common and kept women and men strictly separate (forbidding marriage and sexual relations) Lack of new recruits -> virtually died out by the mide-1900’s

Penitentiary Reform & Mental Hospitals Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) 1821  first penitentiary founded in Auburn, NY 1840’s -> mental patients began receiving professional treatment at state expense

Dorothea Dix Asylum - 1849

Temperance 1826 -> Protestant ministers concerned with the effects of excessive drinking founded the American Temperance Society German and Irish immigrants largely opposed to temperance movement Factory owners and politicians supported temperance - reduced crime and poverty and improved worker output 1851 -> Maine became first of 13 states to prohibit manufacture and sale of alcohol before the Civil War

1826 - American Temperance Society “Demon Rum”! Temperance Movement 1826 - American Temperance Society “Demon Rum”! Frances Willard The Beecher Family R1-6

Annual Consumption of Alcohol

From the first glass to the grave, 1846 “The Drunkard’s Progress” From the first glass to the grave, 1846

6. Social Reform  Prostitution The “Fallen Woman” Sarah Ingraham (1802-1887) 1835  Advocate of Moral Reform Female Moral Reform Society focused on the “Johns” & pimps, not the girls. R2-1

Religious Training  Secular Education 7. Educational Reform Religious Training  Secular Education MA  always on the forefront of public educational reform * 1st state to establish tax support for local public schools. By 1860 every state offered free public education to whites. * US had one of the highest literacy rates.

Horace Mann (1796-1859) “Father of American Education” children were clay in the hands of teachers and school officials children should be “molded” into a state of perfection discouraged corporal punishment established state teacher- training programs R3-6

7. “Separate Spheres” Concept “Cult of Domesticity” A woman’s “sphere” was in the home (it was a refuge from the cruel world outside). Her role was to “civilize” her husband and family. An 1830s MA minister: The power of woman is her dependence. A woman who gives up that dependence on man to become a reformer yields the power God has given her for her protection, and her character becomes unnatural!

Early 19c Women Unable to vote. Legal status of a minor. Single  could own her own property. Married  no control over her property or her children. Could not initiate divorce. Couldn’t make wills, sign a contract, or bring suit in court without her husband’s permission.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton R2-6/7 8. Women’s Rights 1840  split in the abolitionist movement over women’s role in it. London  World Anti-Slavery Convention Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1848  Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments

Seneca Falls Declaration

9. Abolitionist Movement 1816  American Colonization Society created (gradual, voluntary emancipation. British Colonization Society symbol

Abolitionist Movement Create a free slave state in Liberia, West Africa. No real anti-slavery sentiment in the North in the 1820s & 1830s. Gradualists Immediatists

Anti-Slavery Alphabet

William Lloyd Garrison (1801-1879) Slavery & Masonry undermined republican values. Immediate emancipation with NO compensation. Slavery was a moral, not an economic issue. R2-4

Premiere issue  January 1, 1831 The Liberator Premiere issue  January 1, 1831 R2-5

The Tree of Slavery—Loaded with the Sum of All Villanies!

Other White Abolitionists Lewis Tappan James Birney Liberty Party. Ran for President in 1840 & 1844. Arthur Tappan

Black Abolitionists David Walker (1785-1830) 1829  Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World Fight for freedom rather than wait to be set free by whites.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) 1845  The Narrative of the Life Of Frederick Douglass 1847  “The North Star” R2-12

Sojourner Truth (1787-1883) or Isabella Baumfree 1850  The Narrative of Sojourner Truth R2-10

Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) “Moses” Helped over 300 slaves to freedom. $40,000 bounty on her head. Served as a Union spy during the Civil War. “Moses”

Leading Escaping Slaves Along the Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad “Conductor” ==== leader of the escape “Passengers” ==== escaping slaves “Tracks” ==== routes “Trains” ==== farm wagons transporting the escaping slaves “Depots” ==== safe houses to rest/sleep